VIRGIN VIEWS by VIRGINIA

FAR AWAY PLACES

STRANGE SOUNDING NAMES

Monday, Sept. 31 we flew to Amman, Jordan. Just as when flying in from Beirut we had to fly west from Cairo some distance and then north before turning back toward the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. The reason being to keep away from the Israeli border and not to provoke any unfortunate incidents like that over Sinai where a Libyan civilian plane was shot down.

We arrived in Amman in the early evening. The airport was small but adequate - Jordan, like everyone else it seems, has its own Royal Jordanian Airlines - but the first thing that struck us was its tidiness. Everything was neat and clean and in place. This was such a dramatic change after Lebanon, Syria and Egypt that it immediately excited our attention and made us more observant on the ride to the hotel. We found that the airport was no "exception" just to impress tourists. That was the way the whole city was - nay the whole country as we were to learn in the next few days. I was quite impressed with Amman. It is built on hills so all the streets are up and down but the shops were many and varied, the traffic was rela- tively heavy but orderly. None of the dense exhaust smoke as in Damas- cus, though perhaps this was due to the fact of its being built on hills in- stead of in a valley and the prevailing winds would move the pollution along. I also noted that least 1 out of every 3 cars in Jordan was a Mer- cedes. They really did a sales job there and 90% of the taxis were Merced- es too. It made me feel good about mine. If they would stand up so well in desertous and mountainous country with heat and dust that the taxi companies preferred them, I thought mine might last in the asphalt jungles of Los Angeles.

The next day we were up early and drove around the city a little before heading out into the country and south. In daylight Amman maintained